What an amazing piece of literature is Isaac Asimov’s science fiction novel, The Caves of Steel! Copyrighted in 1953, (before I was born!), the story tells how Plainclothesman Elijah Baley was assigned to partner with Robot Daneel Olivaw to find the murderer of an important Spacer. Daneel had been enhanced with a strong motivation for justice in addition to the fundamental Three Laws of Robotics. (See I, Robot.) He defined justice as obedience to all laws.
Elijah argued that among humans, mercy was of higher value than strict justice. As an example, he told Daneel the Biblical story of the woman caught in adultery. Elijah related how Jesus convinced her accusers of their own guilt then told the woman, “Go, and sin no more.”
At the end of the novel after Elijah revealed the identity of the culprit, the detective did not arrest that unworthy. It was more important to the Spacers that the culprit work for the movement to send Earth people out to colonize more worlds in Space than be punished.
Daneel then made a profound philosophical statement. He turned to the culprit and said, “…the destruction of what should not be, that is, the destruction of what you people call evil, is less just and desirable than the conversion of this evil into what you call good.”
Then the robot said to the human, “Go, and sin no more!”
How like God’s desire for those He has created!
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